An apparatus for picking up a single compact disc, that has a central opening, such as a CD, a DVD and the like is mounted on a manipulator arm that can be moved between various locations. The picker head includes an operating element that is moved to enter the hole in the center of a disc, and upon actuation a finger, grip the edge defining the hole for lifting the disc and transporting it.
Pickers for CDs that will pick an individual disc from a stack of discs and permit handling of that individual disc for movement between a storage location and a processing location have been known. U.S. Pat. No. 5,873,692 illustrates a three finger disc picker. Also, U.S. Pat. No. 6,760,052 shows a picker that is mounted onto an arm that moves transversely across a processor, and up and down so the picker can be moved for entering the center opening in the top disc of a stack of discs and picking the top one from the stack.
The present disclosure thus relates to an improved picker that utilizes a guide for entering an opening in a disc, and a spring loaded finger that normally can be retracted to be within the guide with an actuator, and then when the actuator is released, the finger is spring loaded to engage a surface of the disc opening to provide a pressure loading on the edges of the disc opening against two lugs spaced 130° from the actuated finger for permitting the disc to be lifted.